From the Stadium to the Screen: A Guide to Football-Themed Casino Games on Your Mobile Device
For a lot of online gamblers, the worlds of football and online betting are forever linked to one another. Football is the most popular sport in the world, so naturally, it attracts a lot of attention from bettors and operators alike. More and more operators have tapped into football to provide players with content, and there are now more online casino mobile games and products based around the sport than ever before. Let’s take a look at the kind of football casino mobile games you can find.
Online Slots
Of course, one of the most popular ways to enjoy something football-related using a mobile casino is slots. Football and slots have a long relationship; one that has produced some great football titles and some not-so-great ones.
Let’s deal with the not-so-good ones first. Spotting a poor soccer slot doesn’t tend to be too difficult. There are hundreds of slots out there that have just slapped the word ‘soccer’ or ‘football’ on an uninspired game in an attempt to capitalise on the sport’s popularity. We are not going to name names, but these slots often tend to look quite poorly made and also have very little connection with the beautiful game outside of a theme.
Good football slots are the ones that utilise aspects of the game to provide a fun slot experience for players. A game like Spin & Score Megaways from Pragmatic Play is a good example of this. The slot does a great job of mixing the Megaways mechanic with football to create a fun slot experience.
Slots that do something creative with the theme are also worth checking out for football fans. A slot like Quickspin’s Spinions Game Day is excellent for mobile play. This game mixes Quickspin’s Minion’s inspired character with football, adding some humour and unique bonus features to make it stand out.
Finally, you will also encounter a lot of licensed slots, and this is something that you can probably expect more of in the future. Games like D10S Maradona from Blueprint highlight how to get this right. All of these games were developed with mobile users in mind, with the beautiful game having no problem transitioning to the smaller screen.
Sports Betting and Virtual Sports
Sports betting and football go hand in hand, and the rise of mobile gambling and casinos has only strengthened that. Mobile bettors now have more access to football, with in-play betting and things like microbetting becoming more and more popular.
It’s not just real-life football that punters like to have a flutter on though. Virtual sports are on the rise, with more and more football fans betting on them. Like many things, this was no doubt accelerated as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, where a lot of football fans turned to virtual sports for entertainment. This is without going in-depth on esports, with games like FIFA being incredibly popular with bettors.
The relationship between casinos, sportsbooks, and football is mutually beneficial. Many of the top operators will have sponsorship deals with big football clubs and players, providing them with a lot of exposure to their target audience. A lot of sports now advertise in-play betting on mobiles. Things like microbetting are only going to make this stronger, with operators finding new ways to engage with their audiences.
Gamified Betting Content & the Future
One of the other ways that football is looking to engage with players using their mobile devices is through gamified betting content. Things like Fantasy Football and companies like Sorare are leading the way with this, but many operators are also starting to look at new ways to engage football bettors.
Prediction-based promotions and casino games are becoming increasingly popular, as operators dangle free entry and prizes in front of players in order to foster their loyalty, We are also seeing more multimedia content, with a lot of television networks and sports broadcasters realising the crossover potential with iGaming. This could lead to the rise of more unique and challenging football betting games on mobile devices in the future.
A Strong Bond
Football plays a big role in the iGaming world, and mobile developers have been quick to take advantage of that. Football games on mobile devices are becoming ubiquitous, and whether it’s in the form of slots, sports-betting content, or virtual sports, that ubiquity is only going to increase.
Perhaps more than any other sport, football has the power to really change the way that online gamblers engage with it, meaning the future of football-themed casino games on mobile devices could be very interesting indeed.